This Is Rock Bottom for Manchester United—And That’s Exactly Why Fan’s Should Be Excited | OneFootball

As a Manchester United fan, I have been following the head loss on social media in the last few days of the January transfer window. Off went two attackers in Marcus Rashford and Antony without any direct replacement coming in. The team is languishing in 13th in the Premier League with a series of unconvincing performances under Ruben Amorim.

There are few reasons for optimism right now if you are a fan but in this article I will try to provide a RATIONAL outlook on the future of this team and this club.

The Concept of a Rebuild

Manchester United fans have been shouting for years that the squad needs a rebuild. Whenever a bad result happens, you find Ralf Rangnick quotes of the squad needing open-heart surgery trending through X. What the fans fail to see is that we had this open-heart surgery under Erik ten Hag and the Glazers regime, unfortunately—as one of my mates said on X:

If a club is trying to do a serious rebuild, they need to first bring down the building. You cannot repair a building that is rotten to its core. The club needed a shock like the ones Liverpool and Arsenal had with Klopp and Arteta.

Yet looking at these clubs at the start of their projects, Klopp signed Steven Caulker and had to play him as a striker when he first joined Liverpool. He had to shift players on high wages and work with high-potential players like Sadio Mane, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson. In Arsenal, the club shifted high earners Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Mesut Özil, signing relatively unknown high-potential players or promising wonder kids like Martin Ødegaard, Gabriel Martinelli and William Saliba while relying on young prodigy Bukayo Saka.

Both clubs had a plan and stuck to it. They did not try to fasten their rebuild or cut lanes; they did not sack their managers when the going got tough or when the young players went through the expected patches of inconsistency. Both clubs are better for it right now and they are first and second, competing for a Premier League trophy. Manchester United fans need to be patient and finally accept the inconsistency of young kids, the lack of financial might, and the concept that no magical signing is coming through the door to fix this. Only when the fans accept lows of a rebuild will they enjoy the highs when they come.

The Loss of Alone Against All Mentality

When you sift through Manchester United fans social media posts, you will always find two or three posts criticising a player. Marcus Rashford has been the subject of an intense campaign from one famous “fan” channel. You open X and you find constant tweets criticising striker Rasmus Hojlund, stating that he should take over wrestling instead of football. Really??!! This is a young 22-year-old striker who just scored 16 goals in his debut season and instead of helping him back to his feet, the fanbase is shooting his confidence.

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Some other posts can be found about Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo. Is this really what the Manchester United fanbase has become? A fanbase hurling abuse at a 20- and 19-year-old coming through Carrington instead of cherishing them and helping them grow and fight for the badge? Partick Dorgu was criticised before he even kicked a ball for the club for the sake of interactions. There are already calls for Ruben Amorim to be sacked on social media.

I am old enough to remember when David Beckham was subject to death threats after the 1998 World Cup and instead, all of the Manchester United fanbase stuck by him, helped him rebuild his confidence and echoed the alone against all mentality.

This is a mentality that was entrenched in the club under SAF. It started from the fans; it grew a bond between them and the squad that has become unbreakable. Any player who wore the Manchester United shirt always knew that he would have the fanbase at his back as long as he was wearing the famous shirt.

Now, the easiest thing has become to hurl abuse at the players, shoot down their confidence and demand the signing of a shiny new toy.

Manchester United fans want loyalty from their players, which is well within their rights but loyalty is a two-way street. You cannot demand loyalty from players who you are constantly abusing, shooting their confidence and deeming them not good enough.

There is a big difference between constructive and objective criticism, which every fan is totally in their right to do and hurling abuse for the sake of interactions while shooting down players confidence.

If Manchester United fans want an ownership that does not repeat the same mistakes of the past, they need to take a long, hard look at themselves and also stop repeating the same mistakes. The fanbase needs to get back the alone against all mentality. The new ownership already started learning from their mistakes; it is up to the fans to do the same.

Not Repeating the Mistakes of the Past

A lot of head loss was related to how did the club let two forwards go without signing a replacement. Looking at it from another perspective, it should be considered a positive that the management did not panic and stuck to their plan.

Would a Mathys Tel loan costing around £8M and taking from summer finances have helped the Red Devils in these six months? Would a Wout Weghorst/Odion Ighalo type of signing soar the Red Devils into contention? Would the fans have been happy with repeating a Casemiro, Antony, Di Maria mistake? It is simple; if your long-term target who can improve your squad is not available, do not limit yourself from signing them when they are.

It is well known that Antony’s signing stopped the Red Devils from signing Harry Kane the following summer. Being patient and acquiring the right target that suits your game plan and improves your squad is 10 times better than signing anyone for the sake of the dopamine hit.

It is refreshing to see the management finally pivoting from signing old declining stars and instead opting for young, high-potential upcoming players. It shows a shift in strategy and a long-term vision, not just a signing to give the fans the dopamine hit needed to silence them.

An Outlook of the Squad

Now it is time to take a serious outlook on the United squad. In regards to Amorim’s 3-4-3 formation, the Red Devils squad at the start of next season will most likely look like the below:

Realistically, how many players does this squad need? Four or five players. If the Red Devils go and sign, for example, Geovany Quenda, Viktor Gyökeres, Antonee Robinson, Atlanta midfielder Ederson and another forward in the summer, wouldn’t the squad feel complete? All of that without mentioning Sekou Kone, Chido Obi Martin and the influx of talent coming through Carrington in Gabriel Biancheri, Shea Lacey, the Fletcher brothers, the Ibagimov brothers, Jayce Fitzgerald and James Scanlon.

The Red Devils academy and squad are flush with young, high-potential talent. Rasmus Hojlund is 22 and just scored 16 goals last season. Joshua Zirkzee is 23 and just won Serie A’s best young player. Amad Diallo is 22, Alejandro Garnacho is 20, Kobbie Mainoo is 19, Patrick Dorgu is 20, Lenny Yoro is 19, Diego Leon is 18, Ayden Heaven is 18, Goodwill Kukonki is 16, Manuel Ugarte is 23 and Matthijs de Ligt is 25. All of these are players who are not even close to entering their prime.

This is a squad full of young, high-potential players. They will need time to develop and grow together like the Liverpool and Arsenal squads did. Manchester United are going about their rebuild finally the correct way, shifting high wages on the declining stars and signing young, high-potential players who have time to develop and grow together.

Patience Is Required

A lot of fans are mad at INEOS and it is fair to say that their decision-making has been questionable. Yet, looking at things from a big-picture perspective, the new owners are fixing years of financial mismanagement. If we say that a manager needs one or two years to instill his ideas and build a team in his image, how much do new owners need to fix the whole club?

In Amorim, Manchester United has a manager who will not compromise in his ideas or the culture he wants to set. Some would say that Ten Hag’s biggest fault and downfall was that he compromised on his ideas. In Amorim, the Red Devils have a manager who is known for developing young talent and waking up a fallen giant.

What INEOS did in the January window is not falling into the same mistakes of the past. They did not crumble to fans pressure like they did in the Ten Hag renewal; they did not make a panic signing like the Glazers used to and instead stuck to their plan.

Fans may be mad about it right now but not repeating the same mistakes is a sign of improvement and change. It is a sign that this club FINALLY has a plan and is sticking to it. Whether that plan works or not is another matter, and we will not know the results until we see the end of said plan. There was no signing in the market that would have magically soared the Red Devils into contention. This season was known to be a write-off the moment Ten Hag was sacked and Manchester United pivoted to a manager with a totally different philosophy with no time on the training ground to instill his ideas.

Right now, it looks like a mess because the Red Devils are in a true rebuild and rebuilds are messy. In rebuilds, organisations have to hit rock bottom only to truly start going up. Manchester United never hit rock bottom; their worst periods are what 99% of the clubs on the planet dream of. The Red Devils hit rock bottom with Sir Alex Ferguson only to rise and dominate English football for years. Any Red Devils fan can go and ask an Arsenal or Liverpool fan whether the rock bottom they felt in Klopp’s and Arteta’s first years was worth it and they will unequivocally answer yes.

It is time to stick and back Amorim and his young squad of high-potential players. It is time to accept the lows of a rebuild and the hitting of rock bottom to enjoy the highs of it when they come.